The goal, off a picture-perfect cross from Cristiano Ronaldo, wrecked a gutty comeback for the U.S. The Americans fell behind early, then took the lead with two second-half goals, only to see it slip away when Varela outran defender Geoff Cameron and headed the ball home.

The Americans now head into their final group match with Germany on Thursday needing a draw to guarantee a spot in the round of 16. A draw would also win the group for Germany, whom U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann used to coach.

A minute-by-minute statistical breakdown of how the match of the day played out: Inside the Box.

"Anyone who had a chance to be in Manaus will talk about this game for a long time," Klinsmann said. "It's a bummer you have to swallow."

"Football is cruel sometimes," said goalkeeper Tim Howard. "But tomorrow will be a new day."

The Portuguese weren't thrilled, either. Despite the late goal, Portugal coach said Paulo Bento said the draw was difficult to take.

"Our players are a bit sad now," Bento said.

Clint Dempsey started the game with a broken nose and a black eye. But for a little while it looked like he would finish it with the most clutch of goals that would send the Americans to the knockout round.

A deflection off Dempsey's chest in the 81st minute gave the U.S. a 2-1 lead. Stunningly, it put the Americans on the brink of surviving a group that also includes Ghana and Germany. Few gave the Americans a chance of moving on when this tournament began.

It wasn't pretty. It was never going to be on this brutally hot night in the Amazon. Nani's goal in the sixth minute off a miserable defensive play by Cameron made it look like this wasn't going to be the Americans' night.

WSJ sports editor Geoff Foster joins Simon Constable on the News Hub to discuss what the road ahead looks like for Team USA after its 2-2 tie against Portugal in the World Cup Sunday. Photo: AP

But with the future of their journey to Brazil likely hanging in the balance, midfielder Jermaine Jones rocketed a shot from 25 yards out in the 64th minute, giving life to a team that—had the U.S. lost—faced the ugly prospect of needing points against powerful Germany later this week. Seventeen minutes later, Graham Zusi picked up a loose ball in the penalty area, crossed it to Dempsey 3 yards from an open net, where the captain punched it home.

After the opening minutes, the Americans were every bit the equal of Portugal, pounding their depleted defense down the right side, sending defenders to join the attack and battling for loose balls with their elbows up.

There was a golden chance for the U.S. in the 55th minute as Dempsey carried the ball almost to the near post on the right side, then sent it perfectly across the goal to Michael Bradley, who—4 yards from an almost wide-open goal—deflected it into the shin of defender Ricardo Costa.

The U.S. came into the match facing the simplest of World Cup math—a win would put them in the knockout round.

Things went poorly at the start for the U.S. They struggled to move the ball up the field early, and in the fifth minute Cameron failed to clear. The ball rolled off his foot and straight to Nani, who hesitated briefly, then hammered the ball in from 6 yards out. It was the sort of ugly mistake the U.S. had avoided last week against Ghana.

Coming into the match, a draw seemed anything but tragic. Klinsmann thus went with a conservative lineup. With striker Jozy Altidore out of action with a strained hamstring, Klinsmann decided to start a fifth midfielder, Zusi, and use Dempsey as a lone target at the tip of the U.S. attack. The move represented a clear statement of respect for Ronaldo, arguably the world's best player, who is especially lethal when his midfielders hit him as he streaks diagonally through the defense.

The idea was to clog the middle of the field and make it difficult for Portugal's midfielders to find the space to make those passes, a soccer version of hockey's neutral-zone trap.

The plan largely worked. Ronaldo had few opportunities, but Zusi struggled in the attacking half of the field. A second-half sub in the first game with terrific touch on set pieces, Zusi lacks the foot skills to beat the best defenders in Europe one-on-one.

It was a brutally warm night in the Amazon, near 90 degrees at kickoff with heavy humidity. The conditions were deemed so challenging that referee Nestor Pitana declared a water break in the 39th minute, a rarity in a sport where the clock supposedly never stops.

Still, the U.S. had its chances. It held the ball for 48% of the game and produced 15 shots. Portugal had 20.

The early deficit appeared to wake up the Americans. Within minutes they began to push the ball ahead. Defender Fabian Johnson forced his way up the right side to earn a corner kick. In the 12th minute, Johnson earned a free kick from 25 yards that Dempsey sent just above the crossbar.

Five minutes later, Bradley hit Dempsey on a near-perfect chip over the defense, but by the time Dempsey caught up to it, he was too deep to create much of a chance and slammed the shot into Beto, Purtugal's goalkeeper. On the ensuing corner kick he lofted a shot from a dozen yards over the goal.

Bradley had his first-half chances too—two rockets from 20 yards out, one high and another that rolled wide.

Portugal came in seriously depleted. Defender Pepe was serving a suspension, and Fabio Coentrao, another world-class defender, was out with a leg injury, as was striker Hugo Almeida. His replacement, Helder Postiga, went off in the 16th minute with a leg injury of his own. Even Ronaldo, who has been battling a knee injury, appeared a step slow.

It was a golden opportunity for the Americans. It appeared they would grab it. They did, and then they didn't. Now comes Germany.

"We had one foot in the door, so there is a small bit of disappointment," Howard said. "We're optimistic."

Rumors are sure to swirl that Klinsmann could cut a deal with his good friend Joachim Löw, the head coach of Germany, since a draw will send both teams through, but Klinsmann insisted there will be no deal.

"Our goal is to go to the next round. We will do everything in our capabilities to go to the next round," he said. "We are capable of surprising even more teams in this tournament."

To even suggest a "gentleman's draw" agreement is deplorable. Sigh. Spain 1982 world cup, anyone? Frankly I hope the USA and Germany give each other a good fight. Of course, I am biased and want Germany to win but what is most important is that each team in Group G (and in all the groups) approaches its match with integrity and grit and fight it out to the death. As far as I know, that would be the gentlemanly thing to do. And as long as that is done, come what may, everyone can move on (win or lose) with their head held high.

Not a big soccer fan but know the basics and I have only 2 comments.1) The four corners offense would've worked - why didn't they just play keep away during stoppage time? 2) (and this is a pet peeve for years) soccer needs 6 referees (each a side and ends and the middle, like umpires in baseball).

All I know is that DeAndre Yedlin needs to understand when there is "1 minute" left in the game and the US is up by "1 Point" the objective is to keep possession not to attack the goal. Especially when he fails and gives the ball to the opposing team, which against Portugal facilitated a tie... MuLLady

This game reminds me why I can't get excited by Soccer.... Freak'n Ref gets to add 5 minutes to the game. So much potential for corruption. And as we see the Ghana it's common.

I don't trust Professional Sports is anything more then entertainment today, and this game looks like FIFA and ESPN are just looking for ratings. Maybe if i had started a s kid watching I could oversee this, but again last nights game was exciting for a total of 3 minutes, with 92 minutes snooze in between. Maybe it ended in a DRAW, but the sponsor are all laughing how they won!

Geoff Cameron was the weak link in the US back line and the culprit in both of Portugal's goals -- sloppy clearance attempt in the first and a somewhat lackadaisical effort to reach the ball in the second instance.

I'll be the first to admit: I don't enjoy watching soccer. Played 1 year as a kid, but there are other sports I enjoy watching more. Golf comes to mind ;-)

That said, I'm putting in a effort to understand the game and watch some matches. in this World Cup. This was a fun game to watch. I was concerned at the 10 minute mark, but the US team came together and play as well or better then Portugal for the remaining 85 minutes. Good job, Team USA.

I do agree with others asking why they don't have a correct clock. It wouldn't be that hard to do. And - the theatrical injuries? Give it up already. It's embarrassing.

I don't understand why the coach left Bradley in the game. He seemed to stop playing in the last 10 minutes of the game, was probably exhausted. Does soccer have a limit to the number of substitutions ?

this was a pathetic way to loose, the Portuguese goal at 90 minutes + 4:33 is the latest recorded World Cup goal . Hard to understand how the US failed to prevent a score in the final 30 seconds. If this was a European team, the coach would be fired already for allowing the players to fall apart in the last minute.

I was gutted as well after seeing us hold Ronaldo for 94 minutes. That being said, it wasn't that long ago that no one would see us being competitive with a team like Portugal - even after we beat them in 2002.

Ok, I am very ignorant of the sport and a couple of things in the article confused me. Could someone please fill me in? What is the knockout round? You lose and you are eliminated? Also, the talk about a "deal" with the German coach; are they suggesting that they collude to fix the score? Is that allowed?

Funny that the title of this article says it was "a kick in the gut". That's exactly what I said after that last freakin minute goal by Portugal. I wanted to throw something at my TV set ... at Ronaldo in particular. That is probably one of THE worst ways to lose a game. Knowing you just have to run out the clock for a few more minutes and then somehow the other team scores to steal your glory.

I guess the "soccer gods" really want to test Team USA. Now we have to at least get a tie in the next game to advance to the knockout round. It won't be easy to even get a tie with Germany much less a win.

On the other hand if we can somehow pull off a stunning defeat of Germany it might give us a big boost of "mojo" to keep on winning in the next rounds. Never know, it could be a blessing in disguise. Still it's an uphill climb to get a win against Germany in World Cup. I'm sure it's going to be very strange for Coach Klinsmann since he used to play for Germany.

"Rumors are sure to swirl that Klinsmann could cut a deal with his good
friend Joachim Löw, the head coach of Germany, since a draw will send
both teams through, but Klinsmann insisted there will be no deal."

After that mammoth effort by the USA we get tied the last ;30 .If you watch the last minute it sure looks like Bradley lost the ball to the other team AGAIN with another bad pass to set up the last attack when we had fast subs running available on both wings ! The last 20 minutes he reverted to poor Ghana form again and passed to people who had a Portugal player 5' away in the middle instead of getting it wide and running out the clock .we are down to a snowballs chance when we had it in the bag .Its lousy to pick on one guy again but all you hadda do was get it out of the middle .

They do have a correct clock. It's on the referee's wrist. You get to play 90 minutes, with time added on at the end of both halves to cover time lost to injuries, substitutions, etc. As the end of half comes to a close, the fourth official holds up a board with the additional time the ref has added on for these stoppages.

@Eric Biss Pretty harsh considering Bradley has been one of our better players for years. He has a couple of mediocre games and all of a sudden he needs to sit? Yes, he did give the ball away in the last minute but after 94 minutes of soccer in sweltering conditions I don't think anyone can fault the US team for being tired. Fantastic performance overall, a draw against Portugal is not a bad result

@Eric Snyder yes, knockout round is the one after group round (ones we were watching). At knockout round, lose == get eliminated, so there won't be "draw"... and turned out in soccer, draw happens ........ a lot.... so there will be a bunch of rules to figure out how to get a winner out of the two teams after 90min.

regarding the score fixing, it's more like insider trading or dealing drags, people can brag about it, but few will dare to try.

It doesn't need to be on the scoreboard. Everybody knows when the first and second half kicked off and a sense for how much time has been lost for injuries, etc. The crowd is never surprised by the amount of time added on.

@Graham Sanders The American clock system is better (only runs during game time). It's just stubbornness that prevents the rest of the world from changing, and I understand stoppage time perfectly and have for years.

Just one of the idiosyncrasies of the beautiful game. We've just adopted goal line technology (at last). It should only be a few more decades before the timekeeping moves to the clock on the scoreboard, with the ref having yet another device on his wrist to have the clock stop and start. :)

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